UK teenagers to trial social media bans and digital curfews

Key Points:

• The UK government is trialling social media bans, digital curfews, and time limits on apps with 300 teenagers to assess the impact of restricting social media use at home, alongside a consultation on potentially banning under-16s from many social media sites.
• Participants will be divided into four groups: one with apps disabled entirely, one with apps blocked overnight, one with a one-hour daily limit, and a control group, with families interviewed before and after the trial to evaluate effects on family life, sleep, and schoolwork.
• The trial aims to gather evidence to inform government policy, amid debates where some experts support bans while others warn restrictions could be circumvented or drive children to unsafe online spaces, emphasizing the need for tech companies to improve platform safety.
• The consultation on banning social media for children remains open until 26 May, having already received nearly 30,000 responses, and the government plans to complement the trial with a major scientific study on reducing adolescent social media use starting later this year.
• Child safety organizations like NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation support evidence-based approaches and urge decisive action to protect children online, highlighting the importance of tech companies embedding safety features in their platforms.